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Anyways: A poisonous chestnut and a horned frog meet in the Texas desert at a place called Jerry’s World…

Tomorrow night, the world of college football will zoom down into “Jerry’s World”/AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas to watch #4 Ohio State vs. #15 TCU. This primetime matchup will feature a Buckeye team without its head coach, Urban Meyer, on the sideline. However, its coaching staff is very capable of filling the void for this particular game, especially given the insane amount of talent who will be sporting scarlet & gray.

The game should be a great one with various challenges on various fronts for both Ohio State and TCU. The Buckeyes want to make a statement that they are for real akin to its 2014 championship season, and TCU wants to make a statement that they are worthy of being compared with the top college football programs in the country.

Are you ready?

Am I ready?

OH-YES.

The Ohio State Buckeyes battle the TCU Horned Frogs tomorrow night at 8 p.m. on ABC.

As you’ve read throughout the past couple weeks, the ongoing situation with the Columbus Crew and the shockingly bold and unrepentant deceit from scumbag Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt and scumbag MLS Commissioner Don Garber and the #SaveTheCrew movement are much more than a “huh, that’s interesting” moment or mere hashtag and rallying cry.

This is all deeply personal and this leads me to the next chapter in this winding, unfolding saga:

Authenticity.

More specifically, authenticity in Austin, Texas.

“Keep Austin Weird” is the signature slogan that personifies the culturally weird city of Austin, Texas. And that weirdness is viewed as an affectionate label internally and externally. Moreover, it’s important to understand not only what makes Austin weird, but who makes Austin such a weirdly fun place to live.

Rick Smith, a current resident of Austin who used to live in suburban Columbus, recently spoke with news outlet MyStatesman located in Austin about a critical difference between the sports fanbases of Austin and Columbus in an article titled “1 team, 2 cities: Columbus fans ponder possibility of Crew to Austin.”

“A lot of people in Columbus are from there so they associate themselves in my eyes more with the Crew,” he said. “Here, everyone is associated with Dallas, with California, with the (New England) Patriots, Green Bay — with everything else. There’s so many more transplants here that if you bring a soccer team here I don’t think it will be noticed.”–Chris Bils, MyStatesman Correspondent

Perception (cough cough Austin) versus reality (cough cough Columbus) isn’t always a tricky quandary to navigate, especially when the reality is a wonderfully historic and storied place when not actively sabotaged through horrific TV deals, a mountain of lying and a complete lack of presumed investments to fix small problems that are easily fixable (cough cough improved parking spaces and traffic patterns post-match).

I think I need to get some cough medicine; it’s that time of year.

Let’s always remember the tragic deception involving secret backdoor deals betraying the Columbus Crew and its faithful fans, including innocent Crew staff, for the past four years all began with the inauthenticity of Anthony Precourt and the inauthenticity of MLS Commissioner Don Garber towards Crew Nation and MLS followers as a whole.

BTW: Inauthenticity is putting it very lightly.

If Austin wants an MLS club, then build one from the ground up like Columbus did and work your ass off to make it your own. Being weird, which is literally what defines Austin, means never copying anyone or anything and being unique to your city’s famous rallying cry. In other words, being authentic. If (key word here) Austin wants an MLS club, it needs to evolve the right way like Columbus with Lamar Hunt and his group of admirable business leaders in the mid-’90s. Any other scheme (key word here) to get an MLS club in the image of/literally from another city would be a form of stealing and just flat-out weird…